Long Shorthand Poems

You, never, left me
Parents
Separated 
Children 
Sent, away
Others 
Stray 
Out, of, sight
To, fight 

A, living
Misery 
Seemingly
Very, very
Wrong
Everything, gone!

Life
Isn’t
Right
Past
Insight

A, loner
Bi Polar
Without 
Medication
To, boarder
Needs
Sedation 
Any 
Mind 
Filling
Stimulation
Annulling
His 
Sensations
Could
Cause
Dramatic
Fanatic
Inflation

Bi Polar stumbles, on
The, children’s, prison
Sensing 
Grieving
He, plans, on
Just
Leaving
Until 
Still…

He, remembers...

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Circa February 12th, 2122 ~ 10:30 PM

Equals twenty one thirty 22:30 military time
future time traveler looks back one century ago,
oceanic waterways overladen with green slime,
yours truly attempted crafting id est feeble rhyme
far from madding crowd,...

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Loving With BiPolar DisOrders

I know if I say
That reeks, deplorable,
She will only be persuaded
all the more,
That is adorable.

Then I might say
I meant intolerable,
And she will insist
I remain adorable,
with a dismissive smile
toward my alien intolerance
as bigotry.

Then...

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Lisa and I were watching one of our favorite series last night, a Japanese manga called “The Way of the Househusband” and I could barely keep my eyes open. I went to bed at a...

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the inside attempting to outside
each with its own absurd shopping list
we are after all composite beings
clumps and aggregates and glomerations
made up from all the faces we have seen
all the people we have imagined to have...

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“Phoenix Dreams in the Realm of Crows” 

wake up 
shake up 
kaleidoscope girl

jigsaw
see saw 
fit the pieces

she 
another world
away 

the in-betweeen
flows easily
through the veil

safe harbour 
opening 
portals 

for ocean steering 
curious kaleidoscope
stories to sew

the slip...

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Paternal grandmother's headstone - Beth David, Elmont, Long Island

Shaindel (Sadie), variant of Shana Harris
died May 13th, 1959 exquisitely chiseled
alphanumeric characters legibly engraved
sepulchral casket entombing lovely bones
deoxyribonucleic acid repurposed into me
Matthew Scott Harris patronymic protector,
when I...

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Restless soccer moms,
whose kittens have all become mature,
got plenty of suburban boredom
Time enough for sure
to get hooked on every advertised lure
As daytime soaps and gossip kitsch
are the mundane, daily double feature
So they buy themselves some...

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I walked into my school at noon one day, straight from a bland boring counseling meeting and no one was there.
No receptionist, no secretary, no nurse, no vice principal, no custodian, oh, where were they,...

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Looseleaf thoughts trailed behind me as I moved between moments.
Onto the next will little regard for the last.
Carelessly discarded attention to detail left a world crafted by outline, but devoid of color
A chapter’s end, always...

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Steal away the idol children
Work ‘em to death,
give them no pay
Carry their cries 
	      on a plaintive wind

Pilfer their graven image mind
Then fill it with empty thoughts
of caste assimilation

Melting pot...

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"Black Cockatoo"



I was white
as pure snow cotton
thread through the eye of God's needle

Black 
he was, 
not Egyptian, more ancient 

he walked 
in the Dreamtime 
with the forgotten people

obsidian 

We swam the 
well known swan song
like...

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Ice Sleep Quickly...

Slowly counting backwards from one hundred
if restless, yet most every night/early morning,
when tiredness defeats ability to remain alert
though rarely these days no difficulty to dream
way before mentally mouthing the number zero,

a segue way...

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I crashed into a language barrier

So they put me in an induced comma

As they re-calibrated my damaged grammar

Transforming my full stop into a full start


As I wake from my abbreviation
     ...

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"The Croquis"



I draw what is required
from the Russian Doll
embracing my mind

Heart-shaped,
a planchette to guide
the necrophonic void

eternal,
recalcitrant,
answers back like a child

automatic

white chalk drawing 
whispers from a Ouija board 
guided by spectral voices 

charcoal shadows dark
cling fast...

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It comes wrapped up in clear mylar,
like the ones comic people use,
insides faded, creased and yellow,
big red letters boast of the west,
small rips and tears from ancient hands,
and the collectors before me,
does not detract from...

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His dad was a Commercial Traveller
Who went to work in a suit and tie
Didn’t have that weathered complexion
From daily working under open sky.
They lived last house in Mill Row
The village school not very far.
Unlike most...

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There was a scrumptious new boy in town.
We Seniors were agog, 
He went around the square twice 
On a Saturday night

In small town USA in the middle of America
In 1969, this is tantamount to announcing...

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Gemini magic oozes from my soul
Interested in everything, I flit from one thing to another
Dressed in my butterfly disguise, I land, but fly away fast.
I have had over thirty jobs, and quit some before noon.
I...

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In my family, a convent in Lucerne, Switzerland loomed legend large. 
It’s name is “La Madone Noire” (the Black Madonna) and according to my mom, it is a “finishing school” where captious girls, who lied...

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Micro-Feasting
                          by Odin Roark

To propagate the dung heap of ignorance,
Is...

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Do Have Hillary Doll

Bernie has been in Congress many years
And can't find him because he disappears
If memory serves me right when I look back
How can clumsy chicken get lost in a haystack?

Bible again I recently...

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With a vast love for the worlds,
  Art, music, and poetry.
His active heart devours,
  All ekphrasis poetry.

For some of his writings and art,
  Grace the pages of magazines.
With many forms of print,
...

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X marks the Gospel spot
He’s the chiasm of B.C. to A.D.
Like the Chi-rho symbol or ichthus fish
There’s no disrespect, says R.C.
X reminds us of Christ,
[The Star that’s shining bright]
It’s 1st Century shorthand communication
While under persecution...

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It’s Oklahoma’s Native son,
  Blessing us with the beauty of words.
As his inspiration is set to verse it,
  Stampedes our minds like buffalo herds.

The rhythm of the pen is felt,
  As his...

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